


Some Fairytale Bliss

by gotatheory



Series: OQ Prompt Party 2018 [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dark Outlaw Queen, F/M, OQ Prompt Party 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 08:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14053293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotatheory/pseuds/gotatheory
Summary: I've been reading books of old, the legends and the myths. The testaments they told.It’s like a dream. One minute she’s standing in Granny’s with her family, and the next she’s standing in what she assumes is the Enchanted Forest, judging by the clothes of the few people milling about her.





	Some Fairytale Bliss

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day Three of OQ Prompt Party 2018. Bringing you some more Dark!OQ for Prompt #4: Dark!OQ First kiss.
> 
> Lyrics shamelessly stolen from "Something Just Like This" by the Chainsmokers and Coldplay because it's become my go to Dark!OQ song for some reason.

_I. The moon and its eclipse_

It’s like a dream.

One minute she’s standing in Granny’s with her family, and the next she’s standing in what she assumes is the Enchanted Forest, judging by the clothes of the few people milling about her.

They seem nonplussed by the reappearance of the Evil Queen, something that has her heart beating impossibly harder in her chest. No one responds to her presence at all, a peasant ignoring her when she tries to ask where she is, something no one would have dared do to the Evil Queen before.

It’s curious, the way they shrug off her presence, but then she catches sight of a too-familiar tavern.

Her blood rushes in her ears, her heart lodged firmly in her throat now, as she approaches the door and he’s there. Just like he was years ago, when she was simply the Queen, no evil yet attached to her title despite the darkness Rumplestiltskin worked to stir inside of her. Phantom fear swirls in her belly, but she’s not that young girl anymore. She’s the Evil Queen, and she is Regina, light and dark and treacherous hope bubbling inside of her.

He’s not Robin, she knows, not the Robin who loved her — all parts of her, even the ones Regina wished he didn’t love — but she remembers his words in the Mayor’s office. Remembers how he picked up on their similarities, the two doppelgangers that cannot compare to their originals.

Perhaps he really wasn’t there for Regina. Perhaps he was _hers_.

With Regina’s words about not wasting a minute in her head, she tears open the door, and strides over to her soul mate.

_II. I want something I can turn to, somebody I can kiss_

She shares a drink with him — she shares several drinks with him, because she doesn’t want this to end, doesn’t want to have to think about what comes next. She knows so little about him, about this version of him, the one who doesn’t have his son, who never got the chance to marry Marian, who steals from anyone and gives only to himself.

It’s… startling, seeing the man who she thought of as honorable and so selfless in this light. The other Robin had told her about his scoundrel ways, how having Marian had changed him and made him a better man, but actually encountering him doesn’t compare to hearing the stories.

She wonders if she can be what he needs, and that’s silly, she’s getting ahead of herself. They haven’t talked about them, about what their other selves were, or what they could be. She doesn’t want to force the issue, and he seems content to not bring it up, so here they are. Drinking, and flirting some, because there is definitely an attraction between them.

There always is, she knows, remembers their numerous “first” meetings and how there was always a spark.

Eventually the tavern is closing, and Robin is swallowing the remains of his ale before seeing her out into the night. It’s warmer outside than she remembers, but she thinks that might be the alcohol, because she’s shivering. She can feel it, distantly, the trembles subtly wracking her hands, her shoulders.

“Are you cold, Your Majesty?” Robin murmurs, a hand on her back, and no, she realizes, she’s not cold.

She’s afraid.

The night is ending, the dream over, and she doesn’t know where she should go next. They haven’t discussed it, he hasn’t asked her back to wherever he camps out, and she’s got her castle, perhaps. She knows nothing about this land, beyond what history he’s given her.

Regina’s voice in her head once more, almost teasing, _Promise me you won’t waste a minute of it_ , and she must have suspected where this fresh start would take her. Must have hoped that at least one version of herself would find this kind of happiness, and find it with him.

Her heart flutters, pounding, and she still has Regina’s memories. Remembers a campfire, and a tattoo illuminated by flickering firelight, and her heart pounding just like this but outside of her chest, wherever Zelena had it. Remembers this man standing before her, pledging to retrieve her heart, but it wasn’t _this_ man, and she’s not that woman, either.

She should be, with Regina’s light in her heart, but she’s not. She’s the Queen, separate, all that darkness tempered by light and love she only experienced through Regina, and now she doesn’t know what to do, how to process these feelings.

Her mouth opens, but then she closes it, pursing her lips instead as she stares at Robin.

“Your Majesty?” he says, his face screwing up in confusion, and she thinks of the other Robin, how adorable he looked, just like this, how Regina always wanted to kiss him when he made this expression.

She knows how she felt, now.

“Regina?” he tries again, and she wants to correct him, but he’s not wrong, she supposes, not really. She is Regina, a Regina, and it’s enough to make her head hurt.

So she stops thinking about it.

Thinks only one thing, _Fuck it_ , before she’s giving into her impulses, reaching out for him and pulling him to her until their lips meet. The spark that shoots through her is unlike anything she’s ever felt in her short existence since Regina separated them, warms her to her core, makes those heated kisses with Rumple absolutely pale in comparison.

She jerks back, because the intensity scares her, how absolutely right it feels, and she barely knows him. Knows a different version of him. She’s preparing an apology, an excuse, too much to drink, her changed heart is running away with her, anything.

She doesn’t get the chance to say any of it before he’s pulling her back into him.

_III. She said where’d you wanna go? How much you wanna risk?_

Three days. That’s all it takes for her new start to come crashing down around her. If she were anyone else, maybe that would be some sort of record but for Regina, it’s just par for the course.

The change happens slowly; people go from ignoring her presence to staring, to whispering. She doesn’t even notice, not really, because she’s too caught up in Robin. In building her new life here. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic that even this is denied her.

She’s slowly fixing up her castle, restoring it in bits and pieces, turning it into her home. Robin is with her more often than not, though he doesn’t always stay in the palace. He likes his forest, likes his bed of hay and dirt more than her mattress, and she tries to be okay with that.

When the mob comes, she’s more than okay with him not being there. She doesn’t want him to get hurt, couldn’t bear him getting a single injury because of her. Because of something she did.

Except it’s not anything she did, it’s something _she_ did. Regina, the _other_ one.

“I guess there’s something your counterpart forgot to tell you,” Robin murmurs later, when she’s found her wanted poster, signed and sealed with the name of King Henry.

Great. Her own son wants her dead. This new start thing is simply _fabulous_.

He presses into her back, his hands at her hips as he drops a kiss to her shoulder. “It’s all right,” he says, awkward and unsure, and she scoffs, shrugging him off.

“No, it’s not,” she tells him, staring at her face and the words _Wanted Dead or Alive_ by order of King Henry.

The angry villagers don’t stop, and neither does King Henry. He is merciless, hunting her down, ferreting her out. Soon, she’s coming to a new realization.

As she’s lying in bed with Robin, sweat cooling her body, she murmurs, “I can’t stay here.”

“Hmm? I think we can stay for a little while longer, at least,” he says groggily, causing her to rise up on her elbow so she can look at him.

“No, I mean I can’t stay _here_ in this forest. Not with Henry trying to kill me.”

This time, he hums _Ohhh_ with a more reserved tone. For several moments, he’s quiet, until he asks, “Where would you go?”

She sighs, settling back down against the bedding. She’s on her back now, unable to look at him. “I don’t know. There aren’t many options. Camelot, Arendelle… Maybe somewhere across the sea.”

He doesn’t say anything, the silence stretching between them, and when she glances over at him, she sees his brow knit together pensively. Instead of speaking, he sits up, pushing back the covers as he stands.

“Robin?” she says in confusion, watching as he gathers his clothes. “What are you — where are you going?”

She wraps the sheet around her, standing up and grabbing his wrist when he still won’t look at her. “Robin, what’s happening?”

“I thought I’d take my leave, Your Majesty,” he says in a too-calm tone.

“What happened to ‘I think we can stay for a little while longer’?” she teases with a smile, running her fingertips up his arms, lingering at his biceps.

It doesn’t work to relax him, though, he stays tense and pulls away from her so he can put on his breeches. “That was before our little conversation made it apparent you’d prefer me to leave.”

“What?” She’s dumbfounded, shaking her head. “What gave you that idea?”

“Camelot, Arendelle, maybe somewhere across the sea,” he repeats as if it should mean something. When she simply shakes her head again, still missing his point, he sighs in frustration. “Regina, it’s all right that you don’t want me to go with you. But I’m not going to hang around where I’m not wanted.”

She shouldn’t, she absolutely should not laugh, but she can’t help it. The idea that she wouldn’t want him with her is ridiculous. His expression darkens further, but she quickly tries to right it, insisting, “Robin, I do want you to come with me. And I should have said so, but — well — I didn’t think you’d want to leave your home.”

He stares at her for a long moment, sizing her up, he thinks, trying to see through any potential untruths. But he must see the sincerity, because he’s leaning down, pressing his forehead to hers. “Regina. I might not stay in this castle always, but… I should have made this clearer, sooner. _You_ are my home now.”

The words grip her heart, squeezing tight, the breath rushing out of her. It’s the closest they’ve gotten to expressing their _feelings_ , to accepting what they have as more than fun. She reaches up, clutching at the back of his neck and kissing him. Against his lips, she whispers, “How about I take you to another Enchanted Forest?”

“Sounds like an adventure, Your Majesty,” he smirks, before capturing her mouth with his once more and dropping his clothes to the floor.


End file.
